S. Korea to create artificial rain to tackle fine dust pollution in pilot program

미세먼지 해결책 될까…모레 서해 하늘 인공강우 물질 살포An ultrafine dust advisory was issued for Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongbuk-do provinces today, as the average concentration of this type of dust hit past 75 micrograms per cubic meter in those regions.Amid increasing concerns regarding toxic air pollution, efforts are taking place not only at the governmental level, but also through unprecedented tests such as artificially inducing precipitation. Ko Roon-hee has the full story. South Korea is launching a pilot program on Friday that aims to create artificial rain to try and help reduce the concentration of fine dust in the air. The Korea Meteorological Administration and the Ministry of Environment explained that planes will fly over the western coastline of Gyeonggi-do Province, spraying silver iodide on clouds that cause water droplets to form.This process, known as cloud seeding is already being applied in China and Thailand to reduce PM 2.5 particles, but Seoul officials said more research is needed to fully verify its effectiveness.Korea will conduct 15 cloud seeding tests this year. The result of the first test will be announced next month.This comes after record levels of ultra fine dust pollution was recorded last week.Ultrafine dust particulates,... 33 times thinner than a strand of human hair are so small they can't be filtered by lungs, making this type of dust the most hazardous to people's health.Further steps to tackle this issue were also being taken on Wednesday as director-level talks between the foreign ministries of Korea and China continued in Seoul.One of the major causes of fine dust pollution in Korea is said to be fine dust blown in by winds from China, but so far progress on the talks were said to be slow after the Chinese officials dismissed the severity of the claims. Ko Roon-hee, Aririang News.